Traceability and Risk Analysis Strategies for Addressing Counterfeit Electronics in Supply Chains for Complex Systems

Abstract

Within the microelectronics industry, there is a growing concern regarding the introduction of counterfeit electronic parts into the supply chain. Even though this problem is widespread, there have been limited attempts to implement risk-based approaches for testing and supply chain management. Supply chain risk management tends to focus on the highly visible disruptions of the supply chain instead of the covert entrance of counterfeits; thus counterfeit risk is difficult to mitigate. This article provides an overview of the complexities of the electronics supply chain, and highlights some gaps in risk assessment practices. In particular, this article calls for enhanced traceability capabilities to track and trace parts at risk through various stages of the supply chain. Placing the focus on risk-informed decision making through the following strategies is needed, including prioritization of high-risk parts, moving beyond certificates of conformance, incentivizing best supply chain management practices, adoption of industry standards, and design and management for supply chain resilience.

The zero trust supply chain: Managing supply chain risk in the absence of trust

“…For example, in telecommunications, the trustworthiness of the supply chain for 5G network components has raised high-level national security concerns (Donahue 2020;Schneier 2019). Counterfeit goods entering the supply chain can pose serious safety and health risks in sectors such as microelectronics (Collier and Lambert 2020;DiMase et al 2016) and pharmaceuticals (Outterson and Smith 2006). When it comes to food safety, the supply chain plays a key role in reducing harmful contaminants in the food we eat (Conrad, Beyeler, and Brown 2012).…”

Deceptive counterfeit risk in global supply chains

“…propose mitigation strategies from a SC or strategic procurement perspective (Staake et al, 2009;Zhang and Zhang, 2015;DiMase et al, 2016;Machado et al, 2018;Kros et al, 2019). Therefore, the objectives of this empirical study are to:…”

28 years of traceability management: trends, bottlenecks and opportunities

“…The second stream concentrates on the role of traceability as a management tool with the promise to improve firm competitiveness and to provide adequate answers when it comes to disclosures on CSR items. It enables firms to mitigate risks (DiMase et al, 2016;Stranieri et al, 2017) or implement product recalls (Dai et al, 2015). We name this latter stream in the literature 'traceability management' and this will be our point of departure for the present review.…”